A Pleasing Outcome For Once

Justice has prevailed! It doesn't happen often so that makes it all the more pleasurable when the usual course of events gets sidetracked. The unscrupulous guy mentioned in yesterday's blog lost the election. His female opponent received 54 per cent of the vote.
In the previous blog I failed to mention a really underhanded trick he tried to pull off. He had seven women sign up to also run for the office and all of them used their first, middle and last names just as his legitimate rival did. That would confuse the issue and draw votes from forgetful people, or so he thought. The election board threw them off the ballot.
It's too bad that sort of behavior has become commonplace in elections and the vast majority of the time it is a Republican who resorts to dirty tricks. I remember when it wasn't that way. Until recent year if there were nine offices up for grabs my ballot would be marked 5-4 or 6-3. In one election Republicans would have the edge, the next time it would be Democrats. No more. I'll never again vote for a Republican for any office. I don't think much better of the Democrats so I may just sit out future elections. I might not feel that way if I trusted the outcome, but I don't. Not the way it is done today.
Remember when the CEO of the company that makes a goodly share of the computerized voting machines said he'd do anything to see that George W. Bush was elected? After that remark, why would anyone have faith in the outcome of an election using equipment manufactured by his company? Another firm that makes similar machines is owned by a foreign conglomerate.
So why do they use these gadgets rather than paper ballots as they used to do? The news organizations like them for one reason: speed in publicizing the results. Crooked politicians - that's close to being redundant - like them because you can fix an election.
Despite everything that is wrong with the way Americans vote today, something good does happen now and then. It did yesterday right here in River City. When the dust settled, the guy who tried every underhanded move in the book was "unavailable for comment."
The results in this area were noteworthy in one other respect: nearly all incumbents won. I'm not sure if that shows what a wonderful job they have been doing or if it was just a case of sticking with the devil you know rather than taking a chance on the devil you don't know.
I'd like to see the entire system consigned to the dumpster. Fill every office from township trustee to president by lottery. The winner - or loser - would have to serve out the term and then go back to whatever he or she had been doing previously. No more campaigns. No more obscene amounts of money spent to buy an election. Could the result be any worse? What a silly question.

http://www.dickstodghill.com/